OFF THE TOPIC：严重跑题文章实例分析！

imongUID: 140258

从官方文件开始学习：
先看看pp3帮助文件上关于How to prepare an issue essay的说明：

Remember that this is a task in critical thinking and persuasive writing.  Therefore, you might find it helpful to explore the complexity of a claim in one of the topics by asking yourself the following questions:

• What, precisely, is the central issue?
• Do I agree with all or with any part of the claim?  Why or why not?
• Does the claim make certain assumptions?  If so, are they reasonable?
• Is the claim valid only under certain conditions?  If so, what are they?
• Do I need to explain how I interpret certain terms or concepts used in the claim?
• If I take a certain position on the issue, what reasons support my position?
• What examples -- either real or hypothetical -- could I use to illustrate those reasons and advance my point of view?  Which examples are most compelling?

Once you have decided on a position to defend, consider the perspectives of others who might not agree with your position.  Ask yourself:

What reasons might someone use to refute or undermine my position?  How should I acknowledge or defend against those views in my essay?

Copyright ?2002 Educational Testing Service

再看看官方对于这个题目的分析：
In our time, specialists of all kinds are highly overrated.  We need more generalists -- people who can provide broad perspectives."

This claim raises several related questions:  What does it mean to be a generalist or a specialist, and what value do they have for society?  Does society actually need more generalists, and are specialists, in fact, "highly overrated"?

There are several basic positions you could take on this issue: Yes, society needs more generalists and places too high a value on specialists.  No, the opposite is true.  Or, it depends on various factors.  Or, both groups are important in today's culture; neither is overvalued.  Your analysis might draw examples from a particular society or country, from one or more areas of society, or from various situations.  It might focus on the role of generalists and specialists in relation to communications, transportation, politics, information, or technology.  Any of these approaches is valid, so long as you use relevant reasons and examples to support your position.

Before you stake out a position, take a few moments to reread the claim.  To analyze it, consider questions such as these:

• What are the main differences between specialists and generalists?  What are the strong points of each?
• Do these differences always hold in various professions or situations?  Could there be some specialists, for example, who also need to have very broad knowledge and general abilities to perform their work well?
• How do generalists and specialists function in your field?
• What value do you think society places on specialists and generalists?  Are specialists overvalued in some situations, and not in others?
• Does society really need more generalists than it has?  If so, what needs would they serve?

Now you can organize your thoughts into two groups:

1)reasons and examples to support the claim
2)reasons and examples to support an opposing point of view

If you find one view clearly more persuasive than the other, consider developing an argument from that perspective.  As you build your argument, keep in mind the other points, which you could argue against.

If both groups have compelling points, consider developing a position supporting, not the stated claim, but a more limited or more complex claim.  Then you can use reasons and examples from both sides to justify your position.

Copyright ?2002 Educational Testing Service

好，首先看原题的关键字：generalist，specialist，overated，need，这四个字眼在官方分析中统统都有涉及，而且提供的5点分析全部是围绕着这个关键字来的。

那好，看看我们现在流行什么：
1. issue68 People make the mistake of treating experts with mistrust and suspicion 写着写着被写成 people will make a mistake if they treat expert with mistrust and suspicion，完全篡改型。

2. issue1 We can usually learn much more from people whose views we share than from people whose views contradict our own; disagreement can cause stress and inhibit learning. 然后开始写disagreement is valuable and necessary （很快还到了in making decisions，然后without dissenters如何如何？！！）也可以算是完全篡改，不过和上一个还不太一样，照顾到部分关键字然后完全忽略另外的关键字，例如这样的分论点：disagreement plays a more important role in attracting our attention than agreement.请问learning在哪里？如果不是在该段，至少也是后面紧接着下一段，肯定得交待attention is important in learning之类的东西啊（按照这个论点走下去的话）。

3．issue150 “Because of television and worldwide computer connections, people can now become familiar with a great many places they have never visited. As a result, tourism will soon become obsolete.”  最后一个分论点提出来tourism serving as a main source of income of the government can stimulate the development of the public works and the economics of a nation，请问这到底和主题到底有什么关系？这里讨论的是television/computer和tourism的关系，不是economy和tourism的关系，如果要提到economy，顶多是在论述tv和tourism之间的一个中介概念/因素，最后的论点怎么也想不出来可以独立的落到economy上面去。

4. issue47 "Society does not place enough emphasis on the intellect—that is, on reasoning and other cognitive skills." 好，看看主论点： non-intellectual skills play an important role on us and should be placed more emphasis by society. 请问does not place enough emphasis on the intellect和should place emphasis on non-intellect有什么直接关系？完全是两个命题，怎么就拿后一个做主论点了？如果拿后一个作主论点，我想作者的构思过程可能是如下：事实上society已经place enough emphasis on intellect了，其实现在倒霉的是non-intellect，所以我要说明non-intellect如何如何… 拜托前面的“事实上”“society已经place enough emphasis on intellect”不是就那么“事实上”了，这个题目闹了半天就是为了要分析证明到底是不是enough emphasis on intellect，把尚未证明的部分给默认，然后扯到后面的部分，不是跑题是什么？？

暂时举这四个例子。我想参照现有的例子和官方的说明文件大家应该至少有个感性的认识了，关于怎样准确破题也希望大家自己总结经验感想然后发上来。哪怕是最初步的想法，通过大家的讨论，一定可以深化的。希望过两天issue方面不要再流行跑题了（断句的问题如果过两天仍然泛滥也得单独开个帖子说一说）。

最后看看这个：


5 A 5 paper presents a well-developed analysis of the complexities of the issue and demonstrates a strong control of the elements of effective writing.

A typical paper in this category

--develops a position on the issue with well-chosen reasons and/or examples
--is focused and generally well organized
--expresses ideas clearly and well
--uses varied sentence structure and appropriate vocabulary
--demonstrates facility with the conventions of standard written English but may have minor flaws

4 A 4 paper presents a competent analysis of the issue and demonstrates adequate control of the elements of writing.

A typical paper in this category

--develops a position on the issue with relevant reasons and/or examples
--is adequately organized
--expresses ideas clearly
--demonstrates adequate control of language but may lack sentence variety
--demonstrates control of the conventions of standard written English but may have some flaws

再次重复判分的benchmark，考虑一下我们的文章在论点上，差异都差在了哪里。

这是最近几天issue习作最严重和糟糕的流行问题，argument的话，如果我有时间会调研一下范文，然后看看能不能总结一些东西出来。希望大家也能够多发一些自己的心得体会。

poohUID: 146994

受启发的说

*ETS那些东西我也没仔细看，原来还是挺有用的，回去仔细研究一下
至于审题,的确是不好把握，尤其有些题目的范围难确定。例如：如果一个题目中A与B是因果关系，

1 可能要对A.B定义，容易跑的地方
2 如果认为A不一定导致B，写A导致的其他后果算不算跑？
3 如果认为其他因素也会导致B,转而写其他因素，算不算跑？

我认为以上内容是应该写，但容易跑题的地方，跑没跑就要看把握的度了。


imong拿来开刀的那几篇issue，我觉得跑得有点过了，（我检讨自己有一篇也不好），主要原因可能在于作者的粗心，其实那几个题目不难理解的，我想可以得到一个教训就是审题要全面，不要漏掉一些修饰性的，看似无关紧要的小词，实际可能差不少。

imongUID: 140258

被我开了刀的都是几个严重beg the question的情况，属于严重“藐视”原题，几乎根本不加理会，情节自然是“恶劣”了一些 :)

pooh提到的：例如
1 可能要对A.B定义，容易跑的地方
2 如果认为A不一定导致B，写A导致的其他后果算不算跑？
3 如果认为其他因素也会导致B,转而写其他因素，算不算跑？

我觉得这种情况下，上面三点至少不会像我开刀的几个例子那样情节严重，但是也不排除出问题的可能。具体地说，举个例子：
issue220 The increase in knowledge is forcing people to specialize. As a result, the distance between fields of specialization has become so vast that specialists in different areas are rarely able to influence each other."

符合A-->B的模型。首先，对A，B进行界定一般都是必须而重要的，但是这个界定必然是局部的，如果把整个文章都花在对A/B的界定上了，跑掉。A --not-->B but C是很常见的情况，这种情况下，对A-->C进行论述无可厚非天经地义，但是，如果因此就把B彻底忽略完全抛弃，跑掉：一定要有 why A cannot lead to B的分析，一般B C之间还会有对比，要注意的是题干里面是A和B，C是后面引进来的，因此C是为了论述分析A B的关系服务的，不应该喧宾夺主。虽然这样说有一些绝对化，但是也可以认为：再怎么说A-->C的目的都是回到A--not-->B，因此绝对不能把B给扔掉，这一点是关键。而it is C，not A，that result in B，和上面说到的情况是比较类似的。

说得比较抽象，got my idea?

so猫UID: 148633

恩 猫儿又开了一点点窍了~~~~~~~~~
谢谢~~~~

runwowUID: 153630

issue47  是我写的，看了imong的狠批受了启发获益良多！
本人是练得与想得太少，日后仍要厚面皮继续写，考期快到！！！！
谢谢。

poohUID: 146994

说得比较抽象，got my idea?

Yup, I agree. Thank for enlightening me! :)

caoxuUID: 153957

issue 1 是我写的第一篇，第一练习就受到如此点拨，实在幸运，imong　一席话使在下茅塞顿开，再下定会多多总结，发出帖来，以回报imong的一片苦心．

meloncollieUID: 138374

走题这个问题很容易被忽略，刚开始必须严格把关，养成好习惯，imong正是好累啊！支持

翡翠刀UID: 154116

Don't off topic.这是一个基本但很重要的问题。从小就被老师教训不要跑题，现在还要努力不跑题。谢谢imong提醒。

imongUID: 140258

刚才看了galaxysong的文章，是一篇比较好的正面教材，大家可以去参考一下。issue88

其它的作文的话大家互相查一查，搞清楚到底我们现在流行跑题严重到什么程度，为什么跑，怎么跑，然后想想怎么才能不跑。

imongUID: 140258

刚才看到一个更可恶的：

issue73 "In most professions and academic fields, imagination is more important than knowledge."

然后：Position：both imagination and knowledge are important.

我当场背过气儿去~这不是摆明了废话吗？现在人家问的是which is more important，不是which is important，差太远了。如果原题给出来in .. field，imagination is important but knowledge is useless，那这个position可以，没问题——问题在于人家现在说Imagination is more important than knowledge，就算往反面往死了写，both are useless，不存在more important的问题，都可以（当然，估计是找不到论据了）！怎么可以写both are important呢？！简直就是对原题的极度藐视。

可以写imaginaton and knowledge are EQUALLY important （and there is no priority）但是不可以写成both of them are important！

我现在真正开始怀疑为什么总有一些报道说什么“文笔好成绩惨”，是不是都死在这种地方？如果是的话那没得说，完全是自己的问题。

happymichelleUID: 154082

受启发的说，看来对于issue主体词的把握真的很重要
大家看看这道题：issue223
"Education is primarily a personal matter; it has little to do with school or college."
大众普遍的观点认为应写  自主学习vs学校教育
我的理解不同，对于什么叫教育是个人的事情？我觉得是个人有权利选择教育的形式如private school& public school& family education& tutor-education以及有权选择是否要受高等教育，如bill gates放弃了大学学习等
有一种极端的看法认为，只要有钱请私人家庭教师教育孩子无可厚非，因而可以说教育与学校无关。为了批驳这一说法，我想列举私人家教教育的种种弊端，进而说明教育绝非与学校无关

别人都认为写跑题了，想请教各位大虾~
我不认为自己跑题了，还是说issue题目一定要写大众一点的观点才保险阿？
非常感谢
郁闷中~

imongUID: 140258

issue223
"Education is primarily a personal matter; it has little to do with school or college

首先：是不是同意前半句；然后，后半句和前半句不是递进的关系，而是乘法的关系。

按照你的看法，我估计是：Education IS primarily a personal matter，BUT it has a great to do with school.

关于教育是个人的事情，个人有权利选择如此等等，没问题，非常好，完全在讨论前半句。

但是：批驳私人家教来证明和学校有关，这就有问题了。私人家教=Education？如果要这样写，中间也少东西的。

不要理会走样的中文翻译，要不然也不会这么多人写跑题。

methylUID: 139015

同意！如果只看中文翻译会死得很惨的，迄今为止还没有遇到过一份完全error free 的中文翻译

斑竹在一楼中举的几个题目大致可以分为两类
A比B更重要；另一种类似于给出一种结论

对于前者，题目中作了前提假设是AB都重要，这一点要始终牢记
对于后者，题目中往往会给出明显的态度和程度词，应该抓住这个来展开和举例子

个人见解，不知道大家对这有什么想法，这几天准备过程中总想试图找到一种逻辑提纲，对于这两种容易跑题的题型，是否能讨论出一种比较普遍的展开思路呢？